Take away point: There is a Cambodian Midget Fighting League. Seriously. We in the United States have fallen way behind in the field of midget fighting leagues. Something must be done here.

The fight was called in only 12 minutes, after which 28 fighters were declareddead, while the other 14 suffered severe injuries including broken bones andlost limbs, rendering them unable to fight back.

Yes, you read that correctly. 28 of them died. The other 14 were all seriously wounded. On a serious note: think of the guts it took to be the 42nd guy to charge the lion with 41 of your comrades sprawled on the ground around the lion.

Sihamoni was quoted before the fight stating that he felt since his fightersout-numbered the lion 42 to 1, that they “… could out-wit and out-muscle [it].”

Spam Subject line of the day

From Playboy:

Tiffany Taylor has something to show you... (nudity)

I love that "(nudity)" bit. Like you’re going to get an e-mail from Playboy with the title “Tiffany Taylor has something to show you” and think, “I wonder what it is. Is she going to help me save money on car insurance?”
Read more!

Newsweek’s entry in the “Fake, but Accurate” category was a report about American interrogators flushing the Koran down a toilet. Note: not throwing a Koran in a toilet (an allegation made by several former detainees and clung to like a liferaft by The Nation), but flushing it down the toilet.

Putting aside the fact that this story was (by Newsweek’s admission) run with one source (and one non-denial), and putting aside the fact that the one source almost immediately backtracked and claimed he couldn’t be sure he saw that in the report, we are still left with the absolute absurdity of believing that a book could be flushed down a toilet. My fancy low flow toilet has a hard enough time disposing of the water in the bowl. I think back to the wonder toilets of yesteryear and still can’t imagine that they could dispose of a book.

For the editors at Newsweek, however, this was like the Amirault case of the 1990s where charges that a couple running a day care had tied children to trees and raped them, impaled them with swords, and taken them under the house to a magic cave where children were killed. The story was on its face absurd, but that didn’t stop a jury from convicting the Amiraults. Newsweek’s story is also absurd (although more plausible accounts could possibly be true), but fell in line with the belief system of liberal editors (who at first offered a “fake but accurate” defense before retracting the story outright.)

What makes this episode tragedy rather than farce is the fact that fanatics in the middle east used the story as a justification for a killing spree that has left about 20 dead. When Dan Rather gets the boot and his program gets cancelled following his shoddy journalism, a few laughs can be had. But when dozens end up dead, no one can laugh about it.

How to win friends and influence people

Concerned that Larry Summers was running away with the “most offensive statement of the year award” for his tame remarks about men and women being different, Vincente Fox upped the ante last week by suggesting that Mexican immigrants are:

doing jobs that not even blacks want to do there in the United States.

Then, on Tuesday, President Fox explained that he has been misunderstood. There was no further explanation, which is a shame because I assume what would have followed would have been something like: “I meant to demean Mexicans, not blacks. See: Mexicans are doing work EVEN WORSE than that blacks will do. How people took that as a slight against blacks is inconceivable.”
Read more!

Thursday, May 05, 2005

God Bless Southwest Airlines

From the NYT today:

And here in Pittsburgh, a traditional hub for US Airways, that airline's $730 round-trip airfare to Philadelphia has vanished. Starting Wednesday, Southwest is offering round-trip tickets as low as $58 for flights to Philadelphia, and US Airways has already cut its fares.

Stupidest sentence of the Week

The gist of the article is that a gay couple is happy that they can now get health insurance benefits for domestic partners, but shocked to find out they have to pay taxes on their benefits. The offending sentence:

Employers often blame the Internal Revenue Service for the tax, but the rules were written into law by Congress.

Meanwhile, the major networks are covering crap like the John Bolton nomination

FINALLY, Nicole Miller has figured out what most men knew a long time ago — most fashion models are too flat and bony for lingerie. So Nicole Miller Lingerie will be launched tonight at Scores West with actual Scores strippers — who spend most of their professional lives in nothing more than a G-string — prancing about in the designer scanties.

A phrase never before uttered

"I just found out that my part has been completely cut out of the upcoming 'Star Wars' movie. I do not know what happened," Ling said. "I posed for Playboy and it may have been doing that which upset [director] George Lucas. I did not know when 'Star Wars' was going to be released when my manager came to me and said that Playboy wanted me to pose topless."

Didn't know when Star Wars was going to be released? It has been scheduled for a Summer '05 release for over 2 years. Maybe from her perspective, Paris really is smart. Wow.

My Job

Some other time, I'll tell the tale of how my company screwed a small group of employees out of thier bonuses. In short, there were only 4 offices nationwide that were eligible for a bonus based on thier performance. Because the company had a bad year, they withheld the bonus from the only offices who deserved it. So, offices that failed that year saw no penalty while offices that succeeded were punished. For now, accept as given that my company cancelled their bonuses last year. Here is a communication I just got from the HR department about our retirement plan:

Congratulations! As an Associate of (Insert Company Here), you're eligible for a wide array of benefits...By joining the retirement plan, you'll enjoy the many benefits that (Company) 401K plan offers including:*Qualifying for an employer contribution that suppliments your own savings-it's like getting a bonus.